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It was while learning to weave baskets from tribal elders that Theresa Secord had a revelation.

“I looked around and I could see that I was the only person under the age of 50 learning,” she said. “I could see that the tradition would be gone in a generation or two.”

That moment of clarity led to Secord’s distinguished work as an artist, a trainer and mentor to up-and-coming Native artists, and a valuable partner to First Peoples Fund. Secord, who is a member of the Penobscot tribe and has served on the FPF board of directors since 2010, has helped guide the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance (MIBA) into a leading role as one of the state’s most important preservation organizations. The alliance is a cultural organization whose mission is to preserve traditional ash and sweetgrass basketry among the four tribes in Maine.

Secord’s work has not gone unnoticed. Most recently, she was named the 2013 Master Craft Artist by the Maine Crafts Association. The association selected Secord because of her contributions to the craft as well as her commitment to supporting Native basketmakers. FPF also honored Secord in 2009 with a Community Spirit Award.

Secord began making baskets in the late 1980s. She helped start MIBA in 1993 to not only preserve the basketmaking tradition, but break down some of the barriers Native Americans face in sustaining their cultural traditions.

She has been credited with the resurgence of the art form. Since the alliance’s inception, the average age of basketmakers has dropped from 63 to 40 and the numbers of weavers has increased from 55 to 200.

“She is an outstanding example of a person who sees a possibility, seizes an opportunity and takes action for the betterment of her community—and all peoples,” said Lori Pourier, president of First Peoples Fund. “Theresa Secord is synonymous with sustaining culture.”

But Secord is quick to give the credit to others. Even with the rising number of young basketmakers as her work grew, she said something was missing initially in the equation of producing successful, passionate Native artists.

And that’s where First Peoples Fund came in, she said.

“These artists are becoming really successful, but they often are lacking the business knowledge, how to do taxes and marketing… how to be an entrepreneur. We can help them become successful basketmakers, but we really needed help with the other piece.”

The partnership with First Peoples Fund, which has helped connect those artists with their local Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), and provided numerous trainings in the technical skills of running a business, has been vitally important to artists, Secord said.

“It’s a vibrant, great collaboration,” she said. “We are making a difference.”

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This is the fourth in a series of profiles on the 2013 Community Spirit Awards recipients. In upcoming issues of e-Spirit, First Peoples Fund will continue to introduce to you the remarkable artists and culture bearers who are receiving the honor this year.

Denise Lajimodiere is a dancer, a poet, an artist.

But no matter what task is in front of her, she says she will always identify with one special calling.

“I’m a teacher at heart,” said Lajimodiere, whose passion for passing down the traditional dance of her Chippewa tribe has set her apart as a distinguished leader in her community of Moorhead, Minnesota.

Lajimodiere, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, has been named as a recipient of the 2013 Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award.

A dancer of more than 40 years, she was one of the first members of her tribe to bring back the traditional jingle dress style of dance and has worked with girls and young women on the proper way to turn the jingles and make the dresses, belts, leggings and moccasins for their outfits. Her influence extends far beyond dance, community members say.

She has also worked to bring back birch bark biting, and will continue to give workshops on the art form, which dates back to the pre-Columbus era.

During the springtime, Lajimodiere helps host a ceremony in honor of the trees before peeling the bark. The layers, which are as thin as an onionskin, must be meticulously peeled. The larger the pieces, the better, she said, which is an incredible challenge because of the delicacy of the pieces. After years of experience, Lajimodiere can close her eyes and bite the bark with her eyeteeth, slowly loosening each layer from another.

“It takes a lot of practice,” she said.

Dance and bark biting are not the only outlets Lajimodiere has used to express her heritage and knowledge.

Lajimodiere is also at work on academic manuscripts, including research on boarding school survivors and dissertation research on Native American women leaders.

In her “free time,” she spends time writing poetry, which is sometimes only accomplished through writing or art retreats. She recently published a book of poetry called “Dragonfly Dance,” and has found that the peace and quiet of a getaway is important for her work.

“I just need time and space, away from the city and busy life,” she said.

Leslie LaFountain, an instructor at Turtle Mountain Community College, said Lajimodiere should be applauded for her tireless efforts to share the tribe’s traditions with new generations. Her patient and diligent work to bring back the traditional Jingle Dress style of the Ojibwa dance is especially inspiring. LaFountain said it was almost three decades ago that Lajimodiere was instrumental in reigniting the popularity of the tribe’s annual pow wow by forming a committee, fundraising and doing presentations.

To this day, the pow wows are a “source of great pride for this community,” LaFountain wrote in a nomination letter about Lajimodiere.

Lajimodiere works in Fargo, North Dakota, and returns to the reservation to make presentations, teach, and share her love of jingle dresses and dancing.

“Denise is a humble individual, champion dancer, life-long learner and an active participant in pursuits that foster public good,” LaFountain said.

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For Wade Fernandez, one of the sweetest things about receiving a grant from First Peoples Fund is being recognized by the organization as an artist and a voice for people who he says desperately need to be heard.

“As a Native American artist, you sing about things on the reservation and Native people, and you want to do more than you can,” he said.

A USDA Federal Rural Business Enterprise grant from First Peoples Fund will help him do exactly that. As an enrolled member of the Menominee Tribe in Wisconsin, Fernandez will receive $5,000 worth of technical assistance money to help obtain the tools and assistance needed to run a successful music business.

Tribal artists play a critical role in strengthening community economies and lifting Native peoples out of poverty, which is part of the reason that First Peoples Fund partners with artists like Fernandez to help grow their artistic endeavors.

Every year, five to seven Artist in Business Leadership fellows receive a $5,000 working capital grant from First Peoples Fund, which offers technical assistance, professional development and industry?specific group training, and increased access to new market opportunities. In turn, the fellows become mentors and viable leaders in strengthening the arts sector of their tribal economies.

“The program is empowering artists like Wade to not just have a voice, but to help offer the tools and resources oftentimes needed to spread that voice across the country,” said Miranne Walker, program officer at First Peoples Fund. “Wade is doing remarkable things, and we are so happy to work alongside him… and to celebrate his work.”

Fernandez, who is an Artist in Business Leadership fellow and a former Community Spirit Award recipient, is a musician taking online music classes as well as lyric writing classes with his grant. He’s also signed up for a master recording class in Indiana.

Fernandez plans to use the assistance and training to produce a CD of his tribe’s language, which he says is in danger of disappearing. “The original speakers are dying and we need to do as much as we can,” he said.

He hopes to eventually develop a curriculum around the CD, so it can be used in educational settings and taught to younger generations.

Grants from FPF are important for artists like himself, he said, because they encourage and support ideas and skills that might otherwise go unused or sidetracked.

“Technical training will help me do things in a quicker and professional way,” he said. “If you don’t have business skills to promote your work and your message, you have less of a chance of being successful.” T

o learn more about Fernandez, visit his website at www.wadefernandez.com.

This is the third in a series of profiles on the 2013 Community Spirit Awards recipients. In upcoming issues of e-Spirit, First Peoples Fund will continue to introduce to you the remarkable artists and culture bearers who are receiving the honor this year.

‍Even if success as a musician had never come, Cyril Lani Pahinui said he still would have been doing what he loves best all these years—playing and teaching Hawaiian music. Pahinui, who is a Native Hawaiian in Waipahu, followed in the footsteps of a famous father and fine-tuned the art of the slack-key guitar.

His resume is extensive and impressive—stints at Carnegie Hall, tours around the world, contributions to Grammy-award winning albums—and he most recently has enjoyed a long-time career as a teacher at the Pahinui School of Hawaiian Music. This winter, he was named one of this year’s First Peoples Fund Community Spirit Award honorees.

But it’s a simple love of a Hawaiian art form—and a deep desire and passion to pass it on—that Pahinui says keeps him motivated.

“I love music,” said Pahinui, who learned discipline and commitment from his father, Gabby Pahimui.

Pahinui started playing at a very young age, and at the age of 15 was invited to join his father’s band.

“For me that was like receiving a Grammy,” he said. “Just to know that he recognized my commitment and considered me to be on his level. I also think that was the day that I knew I would continue my music.”

His father’s insistence that his instruments always be tuned correctly became a good learning tool for Pahinui.

“I am so grateful for his strict discipline. My training taught me to tune and play by ear and from the heart, and that is what I still do, even today,” he said.

The award from FPF will allow Pahinui to continue one of his greatest passions—teaching. He also plans to develop a DVD series that would teach tuning, and be filmed on site to provide historical context for participants. He hopes to inspire a younger generation, in the same way he was inspired by his father.

“I want to help up-and-coming artists,” he said. “I am so honored to do whatever I can to help. This is a once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity for me.”

It’s also an important opportunity for Hawaiian culture and music, he added.

“We need to pass on the tradition,” he said, particularly of an art form that plays such an important role in the history of the islands. “Slack-key is a guitar style rooted in nearly two centuries of Hawaiian history and is now a catalyst for preserving Hawaiian culture and language.”

Pahinui teaches his classes in the “kanikapila” style, which means that students learn from their teachers through jam sessions.

“Through this one-on-one, in-the-moment kind of learning, students of all levels are guided through simple exercises to create unique Hawaiian music sounds,” he said.

Pahinui said it’s an honor to receive the Community Spirit Award. “It allows me to keep doing what I’m doing,” he said. “It is a blessing from heaven.”

Pahinui is well-known in Hawaii for his music accomplishments and his family legacy, said Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Art Program Specialist Denise Maile Miyahana. His dedication to education is unparalleled, she said.

“He is the most patient and loving teacher that any young person could have. His compassion for their needs is embracing,” she said.

During a site visit one time, Miyahana said she was amazed at what she saw. “I followed him from one community to the next, teaching group after group in one day, always with the same smile, same quiet voice and same stirring artistry,” she said. “I already knew Cyril’s music. From the site visit, I came to know Cyril’s teaching and kind spirit.”

John Thatcher, principal of Connections Public Charter School, has witnessed the same. “He just has so much goodness and just wants to help,” he said. His patience with middle and high school students is outstanding, he added. “He just keeps talking and he doesn’t get mad… he’s just got this way of working with kids,” he said. “And they respond.”

Pahinui said he has no plans to slow down.

“No matter what job I had, I always stuck with Hawaiian music,” he said. “I will share, I will perform. I will never change. I will teach what I know. It’s not difficult. The kids, some day, they will have to carry it on.”

Even when the red willow wood Georgianna Houle uses to make baskets cuts and gnaws into her hands, she keeps working.

Pain isn’t a good enough reason to stop something she loves and feels a deep-rooted family and cultural connection to, she says. It’s that inherent focus that made Houle one of this year’s First Peoples Fund Community Spirit Award winners.

“I was surprised and very happy to be selected,” said Houle, who lives on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in Belcourt, North Dakota.

Her grandmother, who first discovered the art by watching a migratory worker as they rode a freight train to work, passed down the tradition of basket making to her. She formed a deep bond with her grandmother, Selina, who also taught her how to sew dolls and do beadwork. When it came to learning how to make baskets from her mother and grandmother, Houle said it didn’t come easy.

“It was really hard for me at first,” she says. “My mother would challenge me.”

The baskets, which are made with red willow found near her home, can be used as decoration or for use around the home to hold items such as bread, laundry, or business cards, depending on the size. The wood, which is also referred to as Dogwood, must be picked before the spring and summer season. It has to be cleaned, and then shaved to reveal the signature colors associated with the baskets.

The work is worth it, Houle says, who has spent several years visiting local schools and community colleges, explaining the art form and giving hands-on training.

Her baskets have been sold regionally and some of her grandmother’s baskets have been displayed in the Smithsonian Institute. Selling her work has helped support her family, she says, and it’s always exciting when a customer takes the time to admire the art form.

“I’m grateful they are appreciative of my art,” she adds.

It has also been a way to focus on the positive while living on the reservation. Making the baskets, which require so much time and focus, is a way to relax and pray, she says.

Houle, who has received business training from First Peoples Fund, hopes to start a business selling more of the baskets. She has also partnered with the Turtle Mountain Tribal Arts Association, which has a location in Belcourt. The Community Spirit Award, she says, is a wonderful, meaningful compliment.

“I feel really honored to be selected, and honored for my mother and grandmother who passed it on to me."

Peter Jemison is celebrating Thanksgiving this year in a way that is both new and traditional by continuing centuries-old customs of the Iroquois Six Nations. His son manages the Akwe:kon (pronounced uh-gway-go) program house for undergraduate students at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. For the first time, Jemison’s family will host a dinner for students who aren’t able to go home for the holidays.

The house was established at Cornell in 1991 by Ron LaFrance (Mohawk) to celebrate American Indian culture and heritage. The 35 student residents of the house share an interest in Native issues and the importance of community. In the Mohawk language, Akwe:kon means “all of us,” reflecting the spirit of inclusiveness, and celebration of diverse cultures and backgrounds the house offers to students.

For more information about the house at Cornell, check out http://www.campuslife.cornell.edu/campuslife/housing/undergraduate/akwekon.cfm

Pete Peterson, Sr. (Skokomish), a First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital grantee in 2006 and 2012, says he always enjoys attending First Peoples Fund events.

“It’s like being a member of a large family,” he says.

Yet this year, in addition to seeing friends and welcoming the 2012 CSA honorees into the First Peoples Fund community of artists, Peterson and his wife Marilee experienced something new. Peterson was a major contributor to the first ever First Peoples Fund art auction. He donated a bentwood box, made from a red cedar tree given to him by the forest service in the Olympic Mountains—it was a piece that everyone admired at the lively (and sold-out) pre-show art auction.

And that beautiful bentwood box found a home after the auction. When it sold, the buyer’s glow was contagious—everyone around him cheered and clapped. Then the final bidder realized that the artist was standing right next to him, and they had the opportunity to discuss the piece at length. The artist and the buyer giddily studied the box inside and out, as Peterson described how he created the piece, told stories about the designs, and the new owner of the bentwood box explained that it was going to be a heirloom that he would pass on to his children, and his children’s children.

“It was a wonderful experience, being able to meet someone who appreciates a piece as much as he seemed to, it was nice to talk with someone that dedicated to art.”

Peterson began his work as an artist in silver and gold media almost 40 years ago. At 17, he enlisted in the Navy, where he was trained as a machinist, which he believes developed his manual dexterity and natural eye for detail. He then worked as a logger in the Olympic Mountains, which also prepared him for the materials he now uses to create art.

Currently he is working on a mask, two maple spindles, and on a small bentwood box for his great-granddaughter. He says he always has three or four projects going on at once. “When I get tired of one project, I just go to one of the others,” he says.

The box he is making for his great-granddaughter is a bank box 6 inches by 6 inches by 10 inches high. He is making it so that there is a hole where she can put money in, but there is no way for her to open it and take the money out unless his great-granddaughter brings the bank box to him to saw open.

Peterson’s family is clearly a focus of his life. Not only do family members receive his blessings, but some are continuing the tradition. He has made sterling silver bracelets, using only Northwest designs, for every female member of his family. Peterson’s son Paul is an artist, in wood carving and mixed media. He received a First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership Award in 2011.